Adequacy of a Questionnaire for Evaluation of Radiopharmaceuticals-related Adverse Events: Cross-cultural Adaptation

Introduction: Radiopharmaceuticals cause few adverse events that usually are underreported, negatively impacting the guidance provided to users. The lack of a specific tool for assessing radiopharmaceuticals adverse reactions in the patients’ perspective is a reality in Brazil. Objective: To carry out a cross-cultural adaptation and adapt a questionnaire to assess self-reported adverse events of radiopharmaceuticals by users of nuclear medicine. Method: Study of cultural appropriation and adequacy of the questionnaire carried out in a reference cancer hospital. Results: Translation, synthesis and backtranslation of the questionnaire titled ‘Experiences with Nuclear Medicine Examinations’ were performed. After this step, the entire process was analysed by eight expert judges who issued their informed opinions. Subsequently, ten users of the nuclear medicine service analysed the questionnaire and, based on the problems identified, the Delphi technique was implemented with ten experts. After a consensus was reached on the clarity and pertinence of the questions, the final version of the tool was created and applied to 211 participants, 18 of which reported at least one adverse event. Two of these were classified as possible and five as probable, according to the Silberstein causality. Conclusion: After the cross-cultural adaptation of the instrument to Portuguese, it was possible to apply it and obtain a satisfactory response about radiopharmaceuticals related adverse events.